I ahve read a few books and I think that I am having a bit of paralysis by analysis here. I don't quite know what to start my dogs out on.

I ahve a three and half year old Choc. Lab and a 23 week old Cane Corso.

I believe that I ahve found a good source for raw meat and bones in my area but Im a but unsure of what to order?

Any ideas of how you folks started?

I am also concerned about the % of protien for my Cane. I don't want her to grow too fast with that spike in protien content and develop problems?

Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks

ok, I found that link on LB site for wht to feed puppies. Shold I start with that diet and then gradually move off of it? Or should I start with one item at a time and move on to other items singularly, or compound them togehter as needed?

Thanks a bunch

It's generally recommended that when starting a dog on a raw diet to start with a single protein source. Generally this is chicken, because the bones are edible, it's cheap, and readily available. Chicken backs are just about the perfect dog food. Great ratio of meat to bone, bones are easy to digest, and there's often some bonus organ meat attached too.

That's what I'd recommend. Start with chicken and chicken only for the first week. If there are no problems (which would manifest most often as runny poop) then gradually start introducing new items one at a time, building up to as much variety as you can. But variety in the beginning isn't the goal.

In your other post you ask about a side of beef. Great for muscle meat. But not much edible bone in a cow. Think poultry, rabbit, pork neck, lamb---those are the bones a dog can completely consume within a few minutes. Bones to gnaw on are just for recreation, not for food. (And a tooth-breaking risk, in my opinion.)

The protein % of a raw diet isn't as high as you might think. Remember that much of the weight of a raw diet is water. The problems people have with rapid growth in large breed dogs is because of the artificially elevated protein, calcium, and calories in some kibbles. But raw meat and bones are the food nature intended dogs to eat, including large breeds. My raw fed dogs all grew noticeably slower than their kibble-fed littermates--especially my Leonberger. At 1 year old, some of her littermates outweighed her by 50 pounds. She eventually reached full size; just took her longer to get there, which is exactly the way it should be.

Hi, Adam,

Please re-size your sig pic. It's forcing scrolling on threads you post on. Thanks.

Thanks for the info. So chickens are the way to go, huh. I was thinking about trying to buy bulk but I guess with introducing one simple meat at a time it would be best to buy store chickens for now.

Thanks for the info.